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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6207
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RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
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RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUFOANA/USNIC PRISTINA SR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000506 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE, AND EUR/SSA, NSC FOR BRAUN, 
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/13/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: SPECIAL ENVOY AHTISAARI HOPES TO BEGIN 
DIRECT TALKS IN JULY 
 
 
Classified By: COM PHILIP S. GOLDBERG FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY:   UN Special Envoy for Kosovo Status Talks 
Martti Ahtisaari told Contact Group (CG) liaison office heads 
on June 10 that he expects to brief the UNSC in early July 
and then hopes to host the first direct talks between senior 
Pristina and Belgrade officials the week of July 17.  He 
warned Kosovo Albanian leaders against unilateral action, 
such as writing a constitution and urged Kosovo Serbs to 
rejoin Kosovo institutions.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) During a June 9-11 visit to Kosovo, UN Special Envoy 
for the Kosovo Status talks Martti Ahtisaari met separately 
with President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku, 
and with the entire Kosovo Albanian negotiating team, 
representatives from the Serbian List for Kosovo and 
Metohija, Kosovo women leaders, non-Serb minorities, the 
mayors of the three northern majority Serb municipalities, 
UNMIK officials, and the international police commissioner. 
 
¶3. (C) Ahtisaari briefed Contact Group liaison office heads 
June 10 on his plans to move forward on resolution of 
Kosovo's final status.  He plans to go to New York to brief a 
closed session of the U.N. Security Council the second week 
of July and then host the first direct talks between Pristina 
and Belgrade in Vienna during the week of July 17.  After 
this meeting he would return to New York for another closed 
session of the Security Council.  He hopes to meet with 
Contact Group political directors in Brussels on June 30. 
 
¶4. (C) Ahtisaari had met with SRSG Jessen-Petersen and Kosovo 
political leaders prior to the June 10 meeting with CG 
representatives.  Ahtisaari said that in response to a 
proposal from Prime Minister Agim Ceku to write a 
constitution, he had suggested that the Kosovo side instead 
draft constitutional principles.  Ahtisaari said he told the 
Unity Team that Kosovo Albanians must come up with a proposal 
that looks good "inside and outside the room."  In a meeting 
of the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team on June 9, Ceku had 
reportedly proposed declaring Kosovo's independence and 
calling on individual countries to recognize it.  (NOTE: COM 
used a dinner with Ceku on June 9 to discourage him strongly 
against this idea.  END NOTE.).  Ahtisaari told reporters on 
June 11 after meetings with government officials that any 
unilateral action would be counterproductive. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Ahtisaari told the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team 
that a 50-meter set-back for Serbian Orthodox monasteries and 
patriarchal sites as proposed by the team in Vienna, was not 
sufficient.  On decentralization, Ahtisaari told the 
negotiating team that he would propose five new 
municipalities and repeated that there would be no partition 
of Kosovo and no separate Serb entity.  He called on Kosovo 
Albanians to reach out to Serbs. 
 
¶6. (C) Ahtisaari told CG representatives he was concerned 
about the security situation in northern Kosovo and that he 
met with Kosovo Police Commissioner Kai Vittrup to get his 
assessment.  Vittrup told him that the police will increase 
the number of UN CIVPOL officers in northern Mitrovica and 
the three majority ethnic Serb municipalities from 500 to 
¶700.  Ahtisaari warned against hasty judgments about 
responsibility for attacks against ethnic Serbs in the north. 
 Vittrup also told Ahtisaari UNMIK police has identified 12 
communities in which trouble might occur. 
 
¶7. (SBU) After his meeting with the negotiating team, 
Ahtisaari called on all representatives of Serbs in Kosovo to 
accept the offer of the Kosovo government to participate in 
local institutions to build a multi-ethnic society.  In his 
meeting with Ahtisaari on June 11, Serbian List for Kosovo 
and Metohija (SLKM) leader Oliver Ivanovic said he was still 
looking for ways to rejoin the government and Ahtisaari told 
CG representatives that this time he was more impressed that 
Ivanovic was being sincere.  Ahtisaari also invited the SLKM 
to attend the talks in Vienna as observers. 
 
 
PRISTINA 00000506  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶8. (C) COMMENT:  Ahtisaari was characteristically blunt in 
his briefing to the Contact Group liaison office heads.  He 
noted that too many people have an "ahistorical" view on how 
Kosovo's status should be decided, noting that "one cannot be 
even-handed."  He asked the Contact Group to lean on 
Belgrade.  At the same time, he seemed generally satisfied 
with Pristina's actions and proposals to date, although he 
will clearly look for them to do more on decentralization, 
cultural and religious preservation and the status talks 
themselves.  END COMMENT. 
GOLDBERG